On the occasion of the International Day of Forests (March 21), Kim Jong Chol, an official of the Ministry of Land and Environment Protection, told KCNA:

In recent years, the DPRK government made signal achievements in the forest restoration campaign for turning mountains, which cover nearly 80 percent of the country's territorial area, into golden ones.

More than one million hectares of forest was newly created by planting billions of trees in the last five years.

Sapling production capacity grew large through the construction of tree nurseries in different parts of the country and the consolidation of material and technical foundations.

And the enhancement in rooting rate of the planted trees brought out an advance in afforestation.

This year's main policy in the country is to make the forest restoration actively contribute to the improvement of people's livelihood by encouraging the creation of wild fruit forests under the slogan "Let's turn all the mountains into golden mountains!"

The forest restoration campaign in the country will contribute not only to the regional environment protection but to the international effort for relaxation of climate change.